Mighty Doom is a single-player top-down shooter game that features rogue-lite mechanics (or Archero-like for those unfamiliar with the terminology) released by Bethesda Softworks. Rather than the intense demon-slaying action while blasting heavy metal that Doom fans are accustomed to, Mighty Doom is a devilishly adorable mobile adventure with the action-packed intensity of the original Doom games.
Visuals and Animation
The game takes the familiar demons and creatures from the original Doom games and gives them a delightful makeover. The demons, while still menacing, have been transformed into endearing and lovable characters. From the mischievous imps to the cuddly pinky demons, encountering these cute adversaries adds a unique charm to the gameplay experience.
The Mighty Doom developer Alpha Dog Games made some risky aesthetic choices in visuals and animation. The Doom franchise always has always taken pride in very bloody and gory game visuals. Mighty Doom seems like a K-Pop cover of a heavy metal song. It takes the core elements and just made it cuter. To continue with the analogy, it keeps the lyrics and the chorus melody of the original song but re-arranges it into a totally new and different genre that is far from the original theme.
Gameplay
The level design in Mighty Doom is adapted to accommodate shorter play sessions typically associated with mobile gaming. Levels may be smaller or divided into bite-sized sections to ensure players can progress and complete objectives within one mobile gaming session.
Mighty Doom’s loot drops, itemization, and item upgrade mechanics contribute to the game’s depth and replayability. The loot drops provide a sense of excitement and rewards as you discover new items, while the itemization system allows you to tailor your loadout to suit your playstyle. The item upgrade mechanics further enhance your weapons and equipment, empowering you to take on tougher enemies and overcome greater challenges.
The game incorporates item upgrade mechanics to empower players and increase the effectiveness of their arsenal. Through the upgrade system, players can enhance the attributes of their weapons, such as increasing damage, improving accuracy, or reducing reload time. Upgrades may also unlock new firing modes, alternate abilities, or specialized attachments that provide tactical advantages against specific enemy types.
The original Doom game on PC featured eight weapons, designed in such a way that no weapon became obsolete after the acquisition of another. With the player carrying all of these weapons at once, the strategy of “gun juggling”—rapidly switching between the weapons depending on circumstance—can be employed. In Mighty Doom, players cannot “gun juggle,” but there are enough types of weapons that are effective against certain enemies so that players can still experience the feeling of gun juggling. Certain levels require certain guns and weapons, so players need to upgrade a variety of weapons up to a standard.
The upgrade mechanics in Mighty Doom provide a sense of progression and customization, allowing you to continually improve your arsenal and adapt to increasingly challenging encounters.
In-app Purchases
Mighty Doom aims to strike a balance between providing enjoyable gameplay experiences for all players, whether they choose to make in-app purchases or not. While purchasing in-game currency can offer certain advantages, it does not necessarily make the game pay-to-win.
Purchasing currency can provide a convenience factor by allowing players to progress faster through the game. It may enable them to acquire powerful weapons or upgrade items more quickly, giving them an edge in combat.
Eventually, Mighty Doom is a skill-based gameplay, rewarding players for their reflexes, accuracy, and tactical decision-making. Even with purchased currency, success in combat still requires player skill and proficiency.
As an avid gamer, I challenge myself to keep playing a game without spending a single dime as long as I can. Each level in Might Doom can certainly be cleared without purchasing any in-app loot boxes or currencies. It just takes a lot of time, A LOT OF time. I hit a wall during Stage 3, where my weapons were not powerful enough to kill a boss. The game offered me two solutions; grind my way to get enough levels on my weapons and items or just pay up and get the upgrades. So I caved; instead of grinding hours, I just paid around $10 and got the upgrades. It took me a couple of tries to kill the boss with my freshly upgraded weapons since I failed to dodge every single demon fire coming my way.
Is Mighty Doom successful?
According to the data from AppMagic, Mighty Doom has been downloaded more than 6 million times since its release on March 21, 2023. The game generated nearly $1 million in revenue and over 3 million downloads in two weeks since launch. In total, the game has generated $3.578.055.
From the players’ standpoint, the game has received mixed reviews. Some players did not like the aesthetic choices. Some claimed that the game was gatekeeping the content by making it hard and pushing players to in-app purchases.
IGN gave the game 5/10, and highlighted difficulty spikes mentioned above. Italian gaming magazine Multiplayer gave the game a score of 80 out of 100, while PCMagazine gave the game a score of 60/100. On Google Play Store, the game has 4.6/5 stars with 263K reviews. On App Store, it has 4.9/5 stars with 44k reviews.
Ultimately, whether you like it or not, Mighty Doom is designed to be accessible and enjoyable for players of all types, and while purchasing currency may offer certain advantages, skill, strategy, and progression through gameplay remain essential components of success in the game.
